Benzinga | Mar 1, 2021 09:01AM EST

Phio Pharma Shares Are Trading Higher On Cancer Immunotherapies Pact With AgonOx

Phio Pharmaceuticals Corp (NASDAQ: PHIO) has entered into a clinical development collaboration with AgonOx Inc to develop novel T cell-based cancer immunotherapies.

* The collaboration will use Phio's lead INTASYL based product candidate PH-762 and AgonOx's "double positive" tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) technology.

* The study is expected to start enrolling patients later this year.

* Preclinical data presented at SITC 2020 by AgonOx in collaboration with Phio show that treating the DP CD8 TIL with Phio's PH-762 increases the tumor-killing activity of the CD8 DP TIL even further (a two-fold increase).

* Under the terms of the agreement, AgonOx will receive financial support for the trial from Phio, and Phio will receive certain future development milestones and sales-related royalty payments from AgonOx's DP TIL technology.

* Price Action: PHIO shares were trading 11.5% higher at $3.19 in premarket trading on the last check Monday.